1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates in general to electronic communication devices and more particularly to an inline tray assembly for receiving multiple data cards.
2. Background Art
Mobile electronic devices, such as cellular phones, tablets, and the like, are being made to accept multiple types of end-user external inserted cards. An example of an inserted card is a Subscriber Identity Module card (SIM card) which is an integrated circuit that securely stores the International Mobile Subscriber Identity and related keys used to identify and authenticate subscribers, store a limited amount of data such as 250 contact names and phone numbers, as well as subscribers identity, security, and personal information to identify users on a cell phone network, and can be transferred between different mobile devices. SIM cards have become smaller over the years. They come in the full-size SIM 1st form factor (1FF), mini-SIM 2nd form-factor (2FF), micro-SIM 3rd form-factor (3FF), and nano-SIM 4th form-factor (4FF). The 4FF SIM can be put into adapters for use as a 2FF or 3FF SIM, so they are backward compatible. On some networks, the mobile phone is locked to its carrier SIM card, meaning that the phone only works with SIM cards from the specific carrier.
Secure Device cards (SD cards), also known as Super Density cards, are another example of inserted cards used in mobile devices. SD cards are non-volatile memory cards used to store data for use in a range of portable devices. SD cards retain data without drawing power from the battery of a mobile device. SD cards are presently available in three different form factors. The standard SD, the miniSD, and the microSD (originally named the TransFlash or TF). The microSD (uSD) is the smallest memory card that can presently be purchased. It is about a quarter of the size of a standard SD card. There are adapters which make the uSD able to fit in the products which have slots for standard SD and miniSD. The uSD format was created by the company SanDisk. The amount of power used by uSD cards is different for each card because they are made by different manufacturers, but the card typically has a range of 20-100 mA at a supply voltage of 2.2 V.
The United States and Europe are SIM and uSD supported. Asia is dual SIM supported. However, each company producing SIM cards and each country uses its own version of SIM cards. Tablet devices use SIM cards if they have a cell version, or uSD cards if they have a WiFi only version. Music players use uSD cards.
Within a mobile device, different connectors are needed to load different cards. However, one card connector only loads one corresponding card, so the mobile device needs to be designed with different card connectors. Using multiple different connectors can be costly from a supply chain standpoint because multiple different connectors must be stocked. Therefore, a card connector which can load different cards is desirable.
In the past, data cards have been used in devices with separate connection and retention footprints. They are often cumbersome, take up a lot of space and can cause damage to a data card when it is forced into the wrong retention footprint.
It is therefore, desirable to provide an inline tray assembly for multiple data cards that overcomes many of the preceding disadvantages.